Turkish government sacks 18,500 staff before expected end of coup emergency

Turkey's AKP government on Sunday issued an emergency decree dismissing more than 18,500 public servants for alleged links to terror groups.

The decree, published in the Official Gazette, sacked 18,632 civil servants, including nearly 9,000 police officers, some 6,000 members of the military and hundreds of teachers and academics.

199 Turkish academics who signed a 2016 petition calling for an end to Turkey’s three-decades-old conflict with Kurdish militants are among those employees dismissed from their jobs in the latest decree.

Turkey has been in a state of emergency since the July 2016 attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, allowing the AKP government to issue decree laws which bypass legislative and judicial procedures. The emergency has been renewed seven times. The latest period is officially due to end on July 19.

Sunday's decree also reinstated 148 people previously sacked through emergency decrees, while annulling the ranks of some 1,500 retired military and police officers, depriving them of their pensions and passports.

Twelve non-governmental organizations, three newspapers and one television station were also shuttered through the 461-page ruling.

The Turkish Prime Ministry has announced that the country’s state of emergency is set to be lifted on July 28 after being extended seven times.